The John Hughes Slopestyle contest recently went down at the Edward Millen Reserve in Victoria Park to a much heightened anticipation. Last year the contest was one of the year’s highlights. This year the riders and spectators were not disappointed. The John Hughes slopestyle is a downhill bmx and mountain bike course full of ramps and jumps that lets the bike riders perform stunts over on their way down to the bottom of the 45 second course. For the 2016 John Hughes Slopestyle there were a few other bike related events taking place in the day as well. The dual slalom race was great, watching riders go down the hill snaking side by side, racing each other to the bottom going over a few jumps and a set up bridge over a garden bed, making their way to the final two. A fun and exciting race set up. There was also a CycloCross race. This is a really great concept. The race consists of a large number of riders most on road bikes that traveled around the outside of the event location all having to transverse an exciting course set up. Grass track, soggy sand, ash felt, natural bush and the most epic, through the inside and on the outside of the Edward Millen historic house that sits on the top of the hill. Edward Millen house was built in 1912 and was Perth’s Maternity hospital for a good number of years before it started its history as a repatriation hospital and a mental health hospital. On Sunday 17th April 2016 Edward Millen house was used as the starting platform for the John Hughes slopestyle contest. Three Chilies was the provider of the course set up and Paul and his team did not let anyone down.
The video from the 2016 John Hughes slopestyle sums up the day perfectly, awesome action and good times
Starting on the verandah of Edward Millen house the riders pedaled towards a small kicker jump into a landing which took them off the verandah and set them on the way down the hill. Next was the long kicker to the top of a sea container and then drop off into and lander. A small right turn was what the riders had to do before the John Hughes Jeep jump, a 5 meter gap that could have easily been 7 or 8 meters. Moving on down the riders hit a kicker that sent them into the trees, a bridge through the trees was made that stood almost 3 meters off the ground, they had to get that right on their landing as halfway down the bridge they had to thread the needle between the large branches, once that was navigated it was straight off the bridge onto a lander before hitting another kicker into the beautiful constructed curved wall ride, what a magnificent bit of engineering the curved wall ride is. Leaving eh wall ride into a lander the riders had to be 150% committed to hit the left handed hip, the gap was daunting and you had to land good, miss a responsive takeoff and you were hating life. after the hip it was a 180 turn around on a quarter and bank toward the last three booter jumps. The first was more of a set up jump, but some riders were tricking it and the last two saw so much radness go down its hard to describe it all, multiple whips, spins, rotations, and twisted bodies and bikes in mid air. This was a full on white knuckle ride from top to bottom, and only the best would make it
Competitors Lee Kirkman and Nathan Philips take you through the 2016 John Hughes Slopestyle course
The judges were looking at who would take out the win. They were judging on three different criteria. Flow, how consistent, how smooth and generally making things look easy. Extension, how much height and how stretched tricks their tricks were. The last one was Rad, how much radder was their run compared to others, an amazing run that encapsulates flow and extension in an outstanding manner. Each rider got 3 runs down the hill with their lowest score from a run being dropped and then their remaining two runs added together to form their total points. The higher the points the higher the placing.
The 21 riders that were invited to compete were a mix of talent. In all honesty it was hard to get more Mountain bikers into the event, but it was good to have the two that we did. The remaining bmx riders were a mix of park riders and dirt jumpers from around the country. The day before the contest was beautiful and sunny, on contest day rain was imminent. It did rain over night, not what we really wanted. The sun did come out to play for most of the day but cat litter was still needed to used on the course for the area just after the hip as it just was not drying out.
Daniel Chiarelli came from New South Wales and ripped the course apart with so much radness to take the win. Tuck nohander at the top of the course coming straight off the verandah of the historical Edward Millen House. Photo by Jake Meadley
With the dual slalom and the Cyclocross events done and dusted it was time for the main event the John Hughes Slopestyle. It was the most hectic few hours. Seeing each rider fly down the course interacting with each of the obstacles was a memory most won’t forget in a hurry. The crowd was just in awe of the shear radness the riders were expressing. From the start you could see who had it and who was just making it. Some of the stand outs of the day. Jack Fahey front flipping onto the sea container. Jack had travelled from California to Brisbane the day before and then onto a connecting flight to Perth, arriving at 10pm the day before the contest. You could see he was a bit jet lagged but in true Jack Fahey form he put on a great show of talent and enjoyed the day. Josh DeReus jumping onto the sea container landing into a hang five, that was like “are you kidding me” he rolled the length of the sea container but just could not make it and on his second attempt bailed hard off the sea container into the landing. A good winding was all he got, he was lucky. Jay Wilson 360’ed off the sea container to almost flat, he missed the landing ramp with only his back wheel catching the very last bit of it. That distance was large, and he just kept on going as if it was nothing. Nathan Philps adjusting himself as he powered through the tree bridge so that he would make the needle thread between the two tree branches. You could see him lean the bike to one side so his bars did not catch. Joey Graham jumped the hip and bailed hard, just missing the landing and coming down 50/50 on the side of the lander, he got back up and continued on the last of the few jumps, where he went down again, a true bmx gladiator. Nathan Philips backflip whip over the last jump. Dylan Schmidt was on fire. Mike Ross doing three tricks in one jump. Daniel Chiarelli every time he came down the hill.
The most unfortunate thing that happened was a brief shower of rain just after the qualifying was finished, the top 8 were moving into a final. Everyone waited for the sun to come out, it did but not enough heat was in the rays to dry the course up fast enough. Just when things were looking like it was a go for finals another shower of rain which shut the whole course down. There was to be no finals. The results went on the qualifying, there was not much else we could do except announce the winners.
The 2016 John Hughes Slopestyle contest was one of the most unique events in the world. BMX and Mountain bikes competing in the same contest on the same course with a unique set up. we hope that this type of event takes place again in the near future and that it can be built on to become something legendary
Big thanks to the John Hughes dealership and the Town of Victoria Park for their support as with out that the event would not have taken place. Thank you to Tri Events for the management of the whole event. Thank you to Three Chilies for planning out and supplying a super gnarly radical course. Thank you to all the riders for being so dam rad and Hope to see you all again.
John Hughes Slopestyle – 17th April 2016 – Official results
1st Daniel Chiarelli – BMX – $1000, 2nd Dylan Schmidt – BMX – $750, 3rd Daniel Jamieson – BMX – $500, 4th Mike Ross – BMX – $275, 4th Luke Snelling – BMX – $275, 6th David Pinelli – BMX – $125, 6th Liam Smith – BMX – $125, 8th Jay Wilson – BMX – $100, 9th Nathan Philps – BMX, 10th Warren Bowers – BMX, 11th Josh De Reus – BMX, 12th Brady Thomas – BMX, 13th Jack Fahey – BMX, 14th Tim Rose – BMX, 15th Ryan Aqulina – MTB, 16th Will Morres – BMX, 17th Joey Graham – BMX, 18th Lee Kirkman – BMX, 19th Chris Coppard – MTB, 20th Josh Johnston – MTB, 21st Jacob DeAbreu – BMX
The top 8 place getters for the 2016 John Hughes slopestyle. From left to right – 8th Jay Wilson, 6th Liam Smith, 6th David Pinelli, 4th Mike Ross, 4th Luke Snelling, 3rd Daniel Jamieson, 2nd Dylan Schmidt, 1st Daniel Chiarelli
More photos from the day can be seen in the below Facebook galleries from some of the photographers who were taking photos from the day
